Legal firm sues hotel plan critic for defamation

Kevin Paiser of Kewaunee operates a backhoe from Ostrenga Excavating of Green Bay in 2013, at the site of the old granary along the waterfront next to the Door County Maritime Museum. The photo was taken through a window in one of the walls being demolished.(Photo: File/Tina M. Gohr/Door County Advocate)Buy Photo

The legal firm where the Sturgeon Bay city attorney is a partner took the unusual step Thursday of suing a critic for defamation.

But that critic says she can document each of the allegations under question.

Carri Andersson sent a long letter to city attorney Randy Nesbitt of the Pinkert Law Firm alleging “multiple potential violations of the Open Meetings Law and possible conflicts of interest by members of the Waterfront Redevelopment Authority” during the recent discussion of a hotel planned for the West Waterfront near the Door County Maritime Museum.

The letter was copied to members of the City Council, a number of other city officials, several of Andersson’s friends, and at least two local media outlets including the Door County Advocate.

In the lawsuit filed in Door County Circuit Court later that day, the law firm takes issue with what it describes as “specific, false and unsubstantiated allegations of improprieties” on the part of Nesbitt, his partner James R. Smith, and the law firm itself.

Specifically, the lawsuit says allegations that the law firm is representing both sides in the proceedings whether the city will approve developer Bob Papke’s plan for the hotel are “unsupported, contrary to actual fact, and provided to defame the characters of Randall Nesbitt, James Smith and Pinkert Law Firm LLC.”

The letter further defames the partners by alleging “gross incompetence” and failure to provide the city with counsel regarding the legality of the zoning issues raised by Papke’s application for planned unit development (PUD) zoning to build the hotel, the lawsuit says.

The law firm is asking the court to award compensatory and punitive damages and prohibit Andersson “from making any defamatory statements or comments against the plaintiffs.”

The City Plan Commission last week voted 3-2 to recommend that Papke be allowed to build a four-story, 76-unit hotel on the site of the former Door County Cooperative building on Maple Street. The City Council is scheduled to consider the recommendation when it meets Tuesday.

Andersson’s attacks on the firm’s integrity and competence prompted the swift decision to sue, Nesbitt said Monday.

Pinkert Law Firm has done work for Papke in the past but is not representing him in this instance, he said.

“Jim Smith handled this exactly by the book,” Nesbitt said. “He said, ‘Bob, I can’t represent you in matters involving the city.” Papke has retained William Plummer of Godfrey and Kahn in Green Bay.

Andersson said Tuesday that Smith is listed as the sole organizer in the Sawyer Hotel Development LLC articles of organization filed last fall with the state Department of Financial Institutions. Nesbitt acknowledged Smith prepared that document but then did “a classic hand-off” because of the conflict of interest.

“I’m just asking that this (waterfront) development proceed legally and ethically so our taxpayer money isn’t wasted,” Andersson said. She characterized the law firm’s response as a “strategic lawsuit against public participation” (SLAPP), a legal tactic intended to suppress debate over a controversial issue.

The city and its attorneys have still not clarified questions raised publicly by City Plan Commission member Laurel Brooks and others about whether the hotel proposal amounts to illegal spot zoning, Andersson said.

“These are big, important questions that have been left unanswered,” she said. “I have a problem with that.”

The lawsuit does not address the allegation that takes up much of Andersson’s letter, that the Waterfront Redevelopment Authority held an “illegal meeting” on Jan. 5 that had to be redone two days later.

The problem with that meeting was that the city failed to post the agenda in one of the three places where public meeting notices are usually posted, Nesbitt said. It was posted in the other two regular locations and on sturgeonbaywi.org, the city’s website.

The authority met in closed session for two hours discussing the hotel proposal before the posting issue was discovered, he said. Nesbitt said he discussed the matter with an assistant state attorney general versed in open meetings issues, who recommended a “do-over” meeting, posted in all three locations, to go through the agenda again.

He acknowledged that the follow-up meeting was only a few minutes long, because it covered the same ground as the first meeting two days earlier.

“Everyone was all talked out,” Nesbitt said. “I can see how people could be troubled by that — I’m troubled — but (the same assistant attorney general) said there’s not much more you can do about not having the same discussion.”

Nesbitt said he has had “more than one” conversation with that assistant attorney general during the course of the hotel debate, in an effort to make sure the city is conducting business properly and legally.

Andersson’s supporters have established a defense fund and website, sblegaldefensefund.com, to collect donations for her attorney fees.

“The community has been incredibly supportive,” she said. “It’s been wonderful.”